** Chicken BEE STING. What to do?**

[ADozenGirlz]

Thanks for your reply. The question wasn't for my chicken. I asked if your remedy was used on a human or chicken because things that are safe for humans are not necessarily safe for chickens. The meat tenderizer trick is not novel.

I used it on a human - but you gotta understand somethin here, you actually do eat meat tenderizer - it's not like tenderizer is poison. It is made from pineapple! Go look it up. It alters the proteins from the sting with enzymes and deactivates it is what I understand is the way it works. What I read is if you cooked the pineapple it deactivates the enzyme that makes it effective, so if you use raw pinapple it would work same as the tenderizer. So, the question is, can a chicken eat pineapple?

Btw - a little late now to be using this method. It should be used within a half hour or so of the sting to be effective. I'd go with Dawg's method now, or try to find out just why it is swollen. Hope your girl is improving by now.

 

[Moonblink's Farm]

If it later then 24 hours use dawgs method but also put triple antibiotic cream on the sting you can buy it at cvs/walgreens

 

[2greenboyz]

I was wondering, did you actually see the chicken get stung? Or find a stinger? It might be that the chicken just scratched itself with its toenail and it got infected. How is she doing now, we haven't heard any updates has the swelling gone down?

 

[ADozenGirlz]

I was wondering, did you actually see the chicken get stung? Or find a stinger? It might be that the chicken just scratched itself with its toenail and it got infected. How is she doing now, we haven't heard any updates has the swelling gone down?

The owner of the chicken did see the bee but I don't know about the stinger or the status of the chicken, unfortunately.

 

[Red Barn Farms]

We bought 14 one week old chicks the day after Easter and out of those we lost one last month. We had them in the coop and during the day we would release them to forage in their run area. The one who died was smaller then all the others and always seemed more afraid of people. Well that day when we let them leave the coop that little fellow stayed behind, as always. I was watching them all play and run around and thought I'd go and once again try to get him to come out too. Mind you maybe 5 minutes had passed and when i returned i found him dead laying in the coop. What? I started looking around in the coop and seen a single red wasp hovering next to the roof. It was building a nest. I'm wondering if this fellow got stung by this wasp. He died within 5 minutes. Before that he was running around looking very healthy as he always had. So, we have no clue. I didn't see any type of swelling to suggest a wasp sting.

The ones we bought consisted of buff orpingtons, red sex-links, blue dutch, ee, golden laced cochin and he appeared to be a black old english game bantam.

 

[itsthelaw37801]

Just saw this. I lost a chicken Monday. (we are beginners) Think she might have had a respiratory problem. By the time I figured it out, she was gone. Today, one of the other chickens has a knot on his head under his eyes. We have a ton of yellow jackets. I had given them yougart so I think this might be a bee sting. Do I treat for bee sting?

 

[kellanv]

As a hobbyist beekeeper we get quite a few experiences with stings, including our cat who has gotten several stings in the matter of a minute or so (he was being dumb). If the animal, chicken or cat or human, is truly allergic there isn't a ton you can really do. Epi pens contain epinephrin which basically induces an adrenaline response which can extend the time before shock sets in. There may be forms of veterinary epinephrine but I do not personally know of any.

Benadyl and other antihistamines work by reducing the allergic reaction to the sting. While it may not prevent shock, it should help alleviate the other symptoms such as swelling/soreness/itching etc. Again this will help only if the chicken isn't severely allergic. To our experience, baking soda/meat tenderizer/tobacco etc. only seems to work marginally. They can neutralize the poison to an extent but unless you are super quick about removing the stinger, the damage is done.

I would follow the previous advice about dosing but I thought I would give a little background on the options.

 

[itsthelaw37801]

In the time that passed between when I frantically wrote this and now, I found out that they both had grape worm. Didn't even know what that was. Husband is on the way to get medication. I am soooooooooooooooooooooo discouraged everyone. I can't keep up. There are too many diseases for me to know what I am doing wrong.

Overwhelmed.

 

[FuzzyMugz]

I hope you can take a few deep breaths and give yourself a break. There are people within the BYC community who have been raising birds for many, many years. Some of them grew up with poultry, and you know what? Nobody has been through everything. There's just no end to the sorts of problems a chicken can get into. Nobody knows everything. Veterinary medicine is constantly evolving. Holistic options are more widely disseminated. . . . yada yada yada. Fortunately there are lots of folks who are happy to share what they know.

Give yourself time.

Personally, I always feel like I have a great deal to learn. And as much as I find them really fascinating, and as much as I love to read, and read everything I can, I absolutely hate it when something's up with them that I'm not sure how to handle.

If you hadn't been on top of their other needs, you might not even have noticed. I know people who have no patience for even discussing parasite care in chickens. RRrrrrrrrrrr!

Anyway, glad you found out what it was. Give you a break. Take care of you too.

Ellen

 

[itsthelaw37801]

You all are amazing. I love the way you help each other. I am so overwhelmed that it just feels good to vent to someone. We have quarantined him, given him antibiotics and are waiting. Please Lord tell me that little man just got bee stung.